Snake House From Hell

[dales]

Idaho couple's dream home was infested with snakes

By JESSIE L. BONNER Associated Press
Posted: 06/15/2011 02:37:50 AM PDT
Updated: 06/15/2011 01:14:45 PM PDT


They slithered behind the walls at night and released foul-smelling musk into the drinking water. And they were so numerous that Ben Sessions once killed 42 in a single day.

Shortly after buying their dream home, Sessions and his wife discovered it was infested with thousands of garter snakes. For the next three months, their growing family lived as if in a horror movie. More than a year after they abandoned the property, the home briefly went back on the market, and they fear it could someday attract another unsuspecting buyer.

The five-bedroom house stands on nearly two pastoral acres in rural Idaho, about 125 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park. Priced at less than $180,000, it seemed like a steal.

But the young couple soon learned they would be sharing the home with reptiles at least two feet long that had crawled into seemingly every crevice.

While setting up a chicken coop, Sessions lifted a piece of sheet metal and was startled to see a pair of snakes slither away. A few days later, he found more and soon started to collect dozens in buckets. At times, there were so many in the yard that the grass seemed to move.

If he rapped a stick against the roof overhang, he could hear dozens scatter, their scales sliding against the aluminum. After he removed some panels of siding, dozens of snakes popped out. When he made his way through the crawl space to investigate further, he found snakes everywhere.

That's when he realized his family was probably living atop a garter snake den where the nonpoisonous reptiles congregate in the fall and winter.

Sessions quickly developed a daily snake-fighting routine. Before his pregnant wife and two small boys got out of bed, he would do a "morning sweep" through the house to make sure none of the snakes had gotten inside. One day, his wife screamed from the laundry room, where she had almost stepped on one. He rushed in to find that she had jumped onto a counter.

"I was terrified she was going to miscarry," he said.

When they bought the house, the Sessions signed a document that noted the snake infestation. They said they had been assured by their real estate agent that the snakes were just a story invented by the previous owners to leave their mortgage behind. ......scumbag real estate agent!

They soon learned that nearly everyone else in this tiny college town knew the snakes were real.

"I felt bad," said Dustin Chambers, a neighbor. "By the time we knew someone had bought it, they were already moving in. It was too late."

Among locals, the property is known simply as the "snake house," he added.

The pests were impossible to escape no matter the hour of the day.

At night, the Sessions would lie awake and listen to slithering inside the walls. During the day, the family often had to eat out because their well water smelled like the musk released by the snakes as a warning to predators.
But because of the paperwork they had signed, the couple had little recourse when they decided to flee the home. They filed for bankruptcy, and the bank foreclosed on the house.

The Sessions left in December 2009, the day after their daughter was born and just three months after moving in.

"We're not going to pay for a house full of snakes," Sessions said.

His wife, Amber, said she felt like their family was starting to fall apart.

"It was just so stressful," she said. "It felt like we were living in Satan's lair. That's the only way to really explain it."
Several months ago, the house briefly went back on the market.

Now owned by JP Morgan Chase, it was listed at $114,900 in December, according to Zillow.com, a real estate data firm. That price fell to $109,200 in January.

Then, the Animal Planet network featured the Sessions' story in its "Infested" series.

The listing was removed, and it has stayed off the market while Chase decides what to do with it.

A Rexburg real estate company that was hired to sell the house referred all questions to a Chase spokeswoman in Seattle.

Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot did not return repeated phone calls from The Associated Press. But she told a business columnist for Dow Jones Newswires that the bank had contracted to have the snakes trapped and released elsewhere.

Sessions said that he has been diagnosed with snake-related post-traumatic stress disorder and that the house should be condemned.

"It's not right to continue to sell this home," Sessions said. He and his wife said they still have nightmares and have not recovered financially.

The home was probably built on top of a winter snake den or hibernaculum, where snakes gather in large numbers to hibernate, said Rob Cavallaro, a wildlife biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

In the spring and summer, the reptiles fan out across the wilds of southeastern Idaho to feed and breed. But as the days get shorter and cooler, they return to the den in search of warmth.

In 2007, another couple named Neal and Denise Ard sued the couple who sold them the home and the real estate agent who negotiated the $189,900 deal. The complaint was dismissed a year later.

Since the Sessions moved out, other people have looked at the house. One day, when a real estate agent was showing the property, a farmer who lives down the road stopped by to warn them, Chambers said.

"Now, if anybody sees anybody, they kind of will let them know," he said. "Just so that somebody else doesn't get caught in the same trap."

Sounds like a good plot to a horror film.

[Lord Jim]

When they bought the house, the Sessions signed a document that noted the snake infestation. They said they had been assured by their real estate agent that the snakes were just a story invented by the previous owners to leave their mortgage behind. ......scumbag real estate agent!

"Scumbag real estate agent"?

How about "moron home purchaser"?

How mind numbingly stupid does a person have to be to see the words "snake infestation" written in plain English the closing papers they're signing, and simply accept a real estate agent's say so rather than having it checked out? In fact, if the problem is as bad as presented, how was it that even just walking thorough the house this wasn't noticed? (I guess termite inspections are not standard in Idaho real estate transactions; I suspect that a termite inspection would probably have uncovered the presence of hundreds of two foot long garter snakes)

The five-bedroom house stands on nearly two pastoral acres in rural Idaho, about 125 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park. Priced at less than $180,000, it seemed like a steal.

Yeah, that sort of explains it....

Their haste to get "a steal" got the better of their judgment....

What a pair of chuckle heads....

[rubato]

They could sell me a couple dozen of them. I'd let a few out every week to eat the gophers in the yard.

yrs,
rubato

[quaddriver]

They could sell me a couple dozen of them. I'd let a few out every week to eat the gophers in the yard.

yrs,
rubato

Garter snakes?

How chenobylized are they? Or alternatively, how small are your gophers?

[dales]

When they bought the house, the Sessions signed a document that noted the snake infestation. They said they had been assured by their real estate agent that the snakes were just a story invented by the previous owners to leave their mortgage behind. ......scumbag real estate agent!

"Scumbag real estate agent"?

How about "moron home purchaser"?

How mind numbingly stupid does a person have to be to see the words "snake infestation" written in plain English the closing papers they're signing, and simply accept a real estate agent's say so rather than having it checked out? In fact, if the problem is as bad as presented, how was it that even just walking thorough the house this wasn't noticed? (I guess termite inspections are not standard in Idaho real estate transactions; I suspect that a termite inspection would probably have uncovered the presence of hundreds of two foot long garter snakes)

The five-bedroom house stands on nearly two pastoral acres in rural Idaho, about 125 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park. Priced at less than $180,000, it seemed like a steal.

Yeah, that sort of explains it....

Their haste to get "a steal" got the better of their judgment....

What a pair of chuckle heads....

They said they had been assured by their real estate agent that the snakes were just a story invented by the previous owners to leave their mortgage behind. ....my point still stands.

Not to say the couple was blameless, it sounds to me that the RE agent was too quick to cash in on a comission.

[Scooter]

When the written contract says something different from the oral assurance that you were (allegedly) given, that should be enough to raise a red flag that at least some sort of inspection is in order. Heck, the low asking price should have got them wondering what was wrong with the place and raised the same red flag.

Obviously, the real estate agent was trying to dump the house. That's what real estate agents do, engage in all sorts of puffery in order to sell a house. That's not an excuse for plain stupidity.

Would it be legal to attempt to deal with the snake den directly (infusing it with some sort of gas or something to kill the snakes)? Surely whatever it would cost would be more than recouped by being able to sell the house for something better resembling its market value.

[dales]

On 2nd thought...

My own predjudices got the best of me against RE agents.

The couple signed the agreement with full disclosure about the snake infestation.

My condolences.

[loCAtek]

Garter snakes ...two foot long?





So? They would prefer mice?

[rubato]

Anyone dealing with a RE agent should be advised that they are stupid and venial. The licensing exam in California is so easy that drug addicts with big tits generally pass.


yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

I like snakes, I think they are way cool. Used to have gater snakes. I had 10 females and one male all in the same tnak. Well 10 garter snakes produce a whole load of baby snakes. I had to let most of them go down in the sump near my house. They did have plenty of food as the place was teeming with toads.

They could sell me a couple dozen of them. I'd let a few out every week to eat the gophers in the yard.

yrs,
rubato

You need some black racers (or a really big corn or milk snake) or even better would be a few rattle snakes. But rattle snakes are illegal to own, sell or even transport in most states. (and here in the northeast, timber rattlers are on the "can't kill" list.)

[loCAtek]

We got good old fashioned gofer snakes all over; rescued one off the trail the day that was two foot. Feed'em well and they'll grow larger.